These kids are not playing around
That's the lesson that organizers of the Toy Challenge competition hope hundreds of middle schoolers will learn from the event's East Coast nationals May 6 at the Sigma Xi Center in Research Triangle Park.
More than 50 teams from around the country - including five from North Carolina - will show off toys and games they designed and built.
The idea is simple: to teach kids - especially girls, who are more prone to shy away from the sciences at early ages - how much fun science and math can be so that they will be interested in pursuing careers in those fields as they get older.
"Toys are something everybody can relate to,"" says Roger Harris, the manager of chapter relations and support at Sigma Xi, an international honor society of research scientists and engineers. ""It's that general appeal that's the driving force behind the program."
The competition's rules are relatively simple: A team, which consists of three to six members from fifth to eighth grade, develops an idea for a toy or game that will cost less than $150 to make. They write up a proposal for the idea and give presentations through a couple of rounds of competition.
If a team makes it to the finals, members have to build their toy or game and present it to the judges. The presentations, like the toys, tend to be creative, with kids dressing up in costumes and doing anything else they can to "sell" judges on their toy.
"They're almost like car salesmen - it's amazing,"" says Francis French, the director of events at San Diego, Calif.-based Sally Ride Science, which organizes the Toy Challenge. "We see things that it's hard to imagine adults coming up with."
One toy that sticks out in his mind from past competitions was ""Hop to It,"" an invisible jump rope toy. The kids started with a commercial burglar alarm that used a laser beam to detect anything that moved in its path. The team then mounted the burglar alarm on a turntable so it would spin around.
In keeping with the hopping theme, the kids put a toy frog on top of the turntable, and rigged the device to make a croaking noise if the alarm was tripped. As the laser rotated around, the kids playing with the toy had to jump over the laser to avoid being eliminated from the game.
Some teams design games. That's what Cary's Davis Drive Middle School team did when its five female members decided to create an Outer Space trivia game called, "Need My Space."
In addition to learning plenty about science, team members must deal with practical issues - such as scheduling and how to compromise when working in a group, says Michelle Staben, a 29-year-old chemical engineer who is volunteering as a team coach.
The East Coast nationals in RTP is one of two ""finals"" events; the other is held in San Diego, Calif. In addition to all the toys and games, the Sigma Xi-hosted competition in RTP boasts a SciFest street fair designed to teach fun facts about science. Participants include local universities, museums and companies such as GlaxoSmithKline.
As if all that weren't enough, the kids will be treated to a visit by former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan - the first American woman to walk in space.
And doing that is no game.